Students, teachers, administrators, and local officials crowded in front of Orcutt Academy High School (formerly May Grisham Elementary School) the morning of Feb. 9 for a dedication ceremony at the charter school’s new campus and to thank the people who helped make it a reality.
“This is a great day because this is a dream come true,” said Joe Dana, charter program director and principal of Orcutt Academy’s K-8 school in Casmalia.
Dana recognized Ken Parker, the district’s now-retired associate superintendent, for his years of dedicated service.
Parker, Dana said, was a key member of the “dream team” that established Orcutt Academy. He led the founders’ committee, wrote the school’s charter, established school programs, and recruited students.
“His spirit of service, dynamism, and lifelong learning is something that we all want to live up to,” Dana said before asking the crowd to join in a cheer of “Thank you, Dr. Parker!” and presenting the retired educator with a crystal teardrop-shaped award.
“I think it was [primatologist and activist] Jane Goodall who said it best, ‘There’s no boundaries to what a small group of determined people can do,’” Parker said upon accepting the gift. “We see what schools have been and what they are now. Thank you all for being who you are.”
Established in 2008, Orcutt Academy is a public charter school that offers alternative education methods to local students. The Casmalia campus—formerly Winifred Wollam Elementary School—caters to students in kindergarten through eighth grade. Orcutt Academy High School students started attending classes at Orcutt Junior High School before transitioning to May Grisham at the end of last year.
At both of the campuses, students are immersed in a thematic curriculum determined by the school’s teachers and administrators. The four themes at the Casmalia site are agriculture, alternative energy, environmental science and education, and visual and performing arts.
At the high school site, students learn under similar themes: agriculture, arts media, technology, and human health and services. The students also participate in independent study, which encourages them to become involved in community service.
Orcutt Academy High School will have its first graduating class this year. The school held a placement raffle for the K-8 school and next year’s freshman class on Feb. 8. Approximately 270 eighth-graders showed up to fill 150 spots at the high school.
This article appears in Feb 16-23, 2012.